The Louisiana Tech soccer team?s 2004 schedule has been released, and the Lady Techsters will learn to love riding the team bus as 10 of their 12 games are on the road for their inaugural season.

Beginning with the season opener at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 10, Tech will then play at McNeese State on Sept. 12 before coming home for its first home match against Northwestern State on Sept. 14 at 4 p.m.

Tech's other home match is a 3 p.m. contest on Oct. 15 against Belhaven College.

Despite all the travel, Tech?s head coach Jennifer Soileau knows this schedule is appropriate for the early stages of a newly formed program.

?I think we have a good schedule for where our program is right now. The teams on our schedule are all in our region. We?ll get our name out there and hopefully build a good reputation for our soccer program in our region. While it may be hard on our team to travel so much, it is good for our region to get exposure to our team, and most of these teams will come here next year to play.?

The Lady Techsters will not face any conference opponents this year but will begin play in the Western Athletic conference next season. However, Tech will gain valuable experience by competing with several quality programs this fall.

?We have some good teams on our schedule ? ULL, Arkansas State and Arkansas-Little Rock ? and these match ups will help build our team. We?ll compete in some of these games, and some will be a learning experience. Regardless, we should benefit from every game, and this is a good start for our program.?

The Lady Techsters? home contest will be played on Tech?s rugby field on Sept. 14 at 4 p.m., and the match up against Grambling will be at Ruston Junior High School.